Mexico's anti-graft push asks more of politicians

MEXICO CITY -- Corruption is so woven into daily life in Mexico that it has been enshrined in a common saying: "El que no transa, no avanza," or "he who doesn't cheat doesn't get ahead."

Payoffs and bribes are the price of doing business, an invisible line in the budget that usually goes unchecked.

But a package of anti-corruption measures being considered by the national legislature could become a turning point in the country's relationship with corruption, sources say.

At the center is an initiative to impose public disclosure rules for all public servants, at all levels of government. Called "3 de 3" -- or "3 out of 3" -- the initiative would require government officials to reveal their assets and potential conflicts of interest, as well as prove that they are paying taxes.

If passed, the initiative, which would also compel close relatives of public officials to reveal their assets, would be among the farthest-reaching public disclosure measures in the world, its authors say.

"Mexico has to aim for the best," said Eduardo Bohorquez, one of the principal authors and the executive director of Transparencia Mexicana, a watchdog group.

That package, however, hangs in the balance.

The legislature ended its regular session at the end of April without taking up the measures for a vote. Lawmakers, with June 5 governor elections in mind, declined to call a special session to debate the matter before a Saturday deadline that was set by a measure passed in 2015. Instead, they put off the session until mid-June.

However, a public outcry in recent days has compelled legislators to reschedule the debate for Monday.

The "3 out of 3" initiative is the result of a grass-roots effort. In 2014, a change in Mexican law allowed citizens to propose legislation with the support of at least 120,000 validated signatures. Before that, only the president and members of Congress could generate legislation.

The measure, pushed by a group of community organizations, amassed more than 630,000 signatures.

It has also received the support of influential business associations, leaving some analysts to speculate that the rising cost of bribes has cut too deeply into profits.

"This is clearly a historic event in terms of civil society mobilization," said Viridiana Rios, a research fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington and a columnist for Excelsior, a newspaper in Mexico.

The increasing focus on corruption in Mexico reflects, in part, a shift in the way social scientists and government officials are thinking about how best to address the country's troubles, particularly its violence. For years, the government's main strategy in addressing violence was to target drug trafficking groups.

But in recent years, corruption and the impunity that allows it have increasingly been regarded as the fundamental causes of violence and the nation's other ills.

"The worst problems and challenges faced by Mexico are directly caused or aggravated by corruption," said Juan Pardinas, the managing director of the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, a research group that has helped to lead the citizen push for the initiative.

"How can you solve the problem of violence and organized crime if you don't solve the problem of corruption?" he added. "Corruption is weakening the capacity of the state to address the challenges of the country."

According to research by the institute, nearly all corruption crimes go unpunished, and those found guilty of corruption are not high-level officials. Of 444 cases forwarded to the nation's attorney general's office by federal auditors between 1998 and 2012, charges were filed in only seven.

"You cannot sustain a political system where people have enough information to know the extent of corruption but the state institutions are totally incapable of prosecuting it," Pardinas said.

In May 2015, amid an investigation into conflict-of-interest allegations involving President Enrique Pena Nieto's wife and his finance minister, Pena Nieto signed into law legislation establishing a national anti-corruption system.

It included creation of an independent corruption prosecutor, a special court to oversee corruption issues and a framework for coordinating scores of government offices that work to fight corruption.

The 2015 legislation set the Saturday deadline for passage of secondary laws that would enable the anti-corruption system. The main political parties have been negotiating the terms of these secondary laws, including "3 out of 3."

One of the most contentious subjects of discussion has been defining whether the asset disclosures should be made public. Many lawmakers are concerned that revealing their personal wealth could make them and their relatives targets for criminals, so they are pushing for a bill that would require them to disclose their assets only to the government.

Other politicians have volunteered to divulge their secrets even before a disclosure law is passed.

More than 560 public servants -- of potentially tens of thousands -- have signed on to the disclosure initiative, revealing their assets and potential conflicts of interests. They include about 13 percent of Mexico's Senate and 21 percent of its Chamber of Deputies, as well as 12 governors and one member of Nieto's Cabinet.

A Section on 05/29/2016

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